Radosław Grześkowiak | University of Gdansk (original) (raw)
Papers by Radosław Grześkowiak
"Pamiętnik Literacki", 2024
WHEN WERE ZBIGNIEW MORSZTYN’S EMBLEMS COMPOSED? NEW DETERMINATIONS ABOUT THE COLLECTION’S DATING ... more WHEN WERE ZBIGNIEW MORSZTYN’S EMBLEMS COMPOSED? NEW DETERMINATIONS ABOUT THE COLLECTION’S DATING
In 1966, Janusz Pelc, Zbigniew Morsztyn’s monographer, roughly dated the composition of a cycle of emblems. As he claims, Morsztyn completed it between 1675–1680 or 1676–1680, started presumably in the 1660s, and also added corrections probably after 1680. This dating is essentially valid until now. Grześkowiak in his paper proves that the cycle was concluded after May 21st, 1674 (date of Jan III Sobieski’s coronation is mentioned in dedication), and before July 15th, 1675, when Kazimierz Krzysztof Kłokocki, a would-be issuer, who administered the Słuck publishing house, confirmed in a letter that he received the manuscript final draft. Grześkowiak questions the two hypotheses that had impact on the erstwhile dating: Pelc’s thesis suggesting that two different copies of complete collections of emblems represent its two disparate auctorial editions, and Paulina Buchwald-Pelcowa and Janusz Pelc’s assumption that Morsztyn composed 50 three-verse subscriptions written on a 1626 copy of Amoris Divini et humani effectus varii treasured in Uppsala University Library.
This article is devoted to a collection of poetic letters written by Hieronim Morsztyn in Padua i... more This article is devoted to a collection of poetic letters written by Hieronim Morsztyn in Padua in late 1617 and early 1618. Their collegial tone and lack of self-censorship made them a unique source of the everyday life of Padua's Polish community. Mentions of numerous libations, love affairs with virgos and married women, the use of courtesans and, finally, the pregnancy of one of them, all add up to a colourful picture of the social life of students and travellers visiting Padua and nearby Venice. Even the two letters concerning attendance at a public autopsy, which was carried out at the Pallazo del Bo by anatomy professor Adriaan van den Spieghel between 25 January and 19 February 1618, are focusing on an account of the dissection of male and female genitalia.
The Trojan horse of panegyrists – a study of the Old Polish popularity of a certain topos This ar... more The Trojan horse of panegyrists – a study
of the Old Polish popularity of a certain topos
This article is a first comprehensive monographic study of the topical comparison
to the Trojan horse, discussing its origins and its most important panegyric uses in
Old Polish orations and poetry. Today, when the phraseologism ‘Trojan horse’, associated
with treachery, false gift, or internal enemy, is unambiguously pejorative,
the positive connotations of 16th- and 17th-century texts may seem incomprehensible.
Meanwhile, old authors commonly imitated Cicero’s formula (De oratore II 22,94),
who likened the school of the famous speaker Isocrates to the Trojan horse, from
whence many illustrious Greeks emerged. The numerous examples collected in the
article prove that this comparison was commonly used in Polish literature until the
end of the 18th century in three main contexts, i.e., to praise a humanist and teacher
(e.g., professor of the Krakow Academy Szymon Kociołek, the bishop of Kraków
Samuel Maciejowski), to praise a university (e.g., the Kraków Academy) or school
(e.g., Jesuit colleges), and to praise an illustrious family (originally royal, princely and
magnate families, with time the comparison began to be used in praise of minor noble
families). The article also discusses the obscene reinterpretation of this topos.
The collection of epigrams "Źwierzyniec" [Bestiary] by Mikołaj Rej consists of a number of epigra... more The collection of epigrams "Źwierzyniec" [Bestiary] by Mikołaj Rej consists of a number of epigrams three of which are devoted to the figures of St. Christopher (IV 1) and St. George (IV 2 and II 121). For many years, they have been regarded as literary representations of emblematic works and paintings. In fact, the immediate inspiration for the epigrams in question was Martin Luther's interpretation put forward in the late 1520s and early 1530s and later popularised by his adherents in their German and Latin works.
![Research paper thumbnail of Tradycja tekstu zbioru „Jan Kochanowski” (1586–1639). Przyczynek do wydawniczych dziejów czarnoleskiej spuścizny, [in:] Jan Kochanowski: nowe perspektywy badawcze. W sześćdziesięciolecie istnienie Muzeum w Czarnolesie, ed. T. Błach, M. Kozdrach, Radom-Czarnolas 2022, pp. 205–224.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/103625281/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Płeć „Roksolanek”, [in:] „Libris satiari nequeo”. Oto ksiąg jestem niesyty. Pamięci Ewy J. Głębickiej, eds. J. Partyka and A. Masłowska-Nowak, Warszawa 2010, pp. 199–210](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/101532931/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](![Research paper thumbnail of Dzieci planet. Cztery temperamenty jako temat staropolskich poetów, [in:] Światy (nie)równoległe. Literatura wobec astronomii, eds. G. Raubo and J. Włodarczyk, Poznań 2022, pp. 45–75.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/93466682/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Światy (nie)równoległe. Literatura wobec astronomii, 2022
![Research paper thumbnail of Egzemplum z pieśni Mikołaja Reja „Podobieństwo żywota człowieka krześcijańskiego” alias „Ku temuż to krześcijańskiemu rycerzowi napominanie”. Od tekstu paraboli do alegorycznej ryciny, [in:] Zygmunt II August i kultura jego czasów, ed. R. Rusnak, Warszawa 2022, pp. 60–92.](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/91733352/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Zygmunt II August i kultura jego czasów. W pięćsetlecie urodzin ostatniego Jagiellona na polsko-litewskim tronie, ed. R. Rusnak, 2022
Exemplum from the Song by Mikołaj Rej "The Likeness of a Christian Man’s Life" [Podobieństwo życi... more Exemplum from the Song by Mikołaj Rej "The Likeness of a Christian Man’s Life" [Podobieństwo życia chrześcijańskiego człowieka] alias "The Exhortation Addressed to This Christian Knight" [Ku temuż to krześcijańskiemu rycerzowi napominanie]. From Parable Text to Allegorical Engraving
Abstract
The full text of the song by Mikołaj Rej with the incipit: “What do you want to do, my dear man” [“Cóż chcesz czynić, mój miły człowiecze”] had as many as nine editions in the years 1556–1600, all of which are briefl y discussed here. The article contains a critical edition of the song (the three existing contemporary editions do not meet the criteria for a critical edition) and a discussion, but it focuses primarily on the exemplum presented in the initial part of the poem. This exemplum tells the story of a young man who was chased by a lion to the edge of a precipice and saved himself from the fall by grabbing a branch of a tree growing out of the rock wall. Ignoring the lion above him, the dragon at the bottom of the precipice, and the mice that were gnawing on the branch, the young man focused his attention on apples growing on the branch. The parable is meant to illustrate the stupidity
of people who are hunted by death (the lion), lurked by the devil (the dragon), whose time passes quickly (the white and black mice symbolising day and night represent the passage of time), and who, oblivious to the dangers, focus on worldly goods.
The article points the Old Indian source of this parable, discusses the way it reached Europe, and mentions the editors Rej may have used. It also shows the reception of the parable from Rej’s song in the sixteenth century, both textual (Benedykt Herbest, 1566) and visual (Stanisław Kołakowski, 1584).
"Pamiętnik Literacki", 2022
ON THE PESTILENTIAL CONTEXT AND TWO ANCIENT READERS OF A 16TH C. EDITION OF POLIKARP’S DIALOGUE ... more ON THE PESTILENTIAL CONTEXT AND TWO ANCIENT READERS
OF A 16TH C. EDITION OF POLIKARP’S DIALOGUE
The paper reveals that the immediate cause of including "Dialog mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią" ("Master Polikarp’s Dialogue with Death") in 1542 in the print "Śmierci z mistrzem dwojakie gadania" ("Death’s Two Dialogues with the Master") was a plague epidemic that then spread over the Greater Poland region and reached Cracow the following year. The epidemic was the most severe of all that attacked Poland in the 15th and 16th c. The Cracow printers issued at that time numerous mortuary prints and within this framework they also reminded of the mediaeval dialogue. The author of the paper also pays attention to two readers of this volume: Mikołaj Rej, who, influenced by it, composed his "Kupiec" ("Merchant", 1549), and Paweł Simplicjan, that in his "Manele duchowne" ("Spiritual Matters", 1601) in extenso quoted a piece of a skull from "Śmierci z mistrzem dwojakie gadania". Simplicjan’s publication is here linked with a 1542 edition which also incorporates the same image of Death.
"Terminus", 2022
“Złego sługę malarze tak figurowali” (“A bad servant was so depicted”): Sources of the Images of ... more “Złego sługę malarze tak figurowali” (“A bad servant was so depicted”): Sources of the Images of a Good and Bad Servant and of a Good and Bad Wife in Chapter 4 of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’)
The chapter of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’), entitled Jako starych wieków przypadki świeckie ludzie sobie malowali (‘As People Painted Secular Shapes from Old Times’), is a collection of epigrams accompanied by visual illustrations of various human features and vices. As proved in 1893 by Ignacy Chrzanowski, some of the pieces were inspired by Andrea Alciato’s emblems, hence the search for Rej’s sources
focused on emblem literature. However, despite the evidence that Rej’s epigrams were intended as comments to illustrations, they still may be rooted in literary texts.
This article deals with the sources of four epigrams, namely, the one depicting a bad servant, a good servant, a good wife and a bad wife. The epigram "Sługa dobry" (IV 31, ‘The Good Servant’) may have been modeled on the popular treaty "Οίκετης sive De officio famulorum", written in 1535 by Gilbert Cousin, who described an image of a good servant, subsequently painted in French nobles’ chambers. It presented a human silhouette with a pig’s face, donkey’s ears and deer’s legs, which captured the idea of the servant being easy to feed, eager to listen and fast to follow the master’s orders. This image was widely popularized in 16th-century drawings, however none of them is known to have been familiar to Rej before 1562 and used by him as a pattern for his epigram.
Since a pig’s snout is associated with gluttony in Rej’s other texts, in the epigram "Sługa dobry" it is replaced by a bull’s head. The image of the snout is exploited in "Zły sługa" (IV 30, ‘The Bad Servant’). Rej equipped the bad servant with a wolf ’s ears – he will pretend to misunderstand orders for his own benefit, a bear’s paws – he steals, and a dog’s tail – he flatters his master.
The two epigrams presenting the images of a good wife and a bad wife, were inspired by verses that were echoed in Rej’s other works, for instance in "Postylla" (1557, ‘Postil’) and "Żywot człowieka poczciwego" (1568, ‘Life of a Virtuous Man’). The epigram "Żona poczciwa" (IV 32, ‘The Virtuous Wife’) alludes to Ps. 128(127):3, whereas "Żona wszeteczna" (IV 33, ‘The Profligate Wife’) to Prov. 11:22.
Wazowie a literatura Przekroje i zbliżenia, ed. R. Krzywy. P. Tyszka, Warszawa , 2021
Epithalamia of the Vasas ‘Penned in the Native Tongue' Three Polish kings from the Vasa dynasty,... more Epithalamia of the Vasas ‘Penned in the Native Tongue'
Three Polish kings from the Vasa dynasty, Sigismund III, Vladyslav IV, and John II Casimir, were married five times. These ceremonies were commemorated by over sixty prints in Latin and only seven epithalamic collections in Polish. The responsibility for such a small number of the latter fell on the kings themselves, as they were little interested in the praises written by panegyrists in a language other than Latin understood throughout the whole of Europe. For the authors of the Polish-language epithalamia, the Vasas turned out to be quite unfavourable patrons.
The consequences of this fact are not limited to a small number of texts, clearly decreasing with successive marriages: the two wedding ceremonies of Sigismund III, in 1592 and 1605, were praised by two poets; the wedding of Vladyslav IV in 1637 was also honoured in two prints, but by one author; the next marriage of this king, held in 1646, was praised in only one Polish volume, and John II Casimir’s wedding, which took place two years later, was not honoured with any Polish poetry collection, as far as we know. With the lapse of time, it was increasingly inferior poets that decided to write an epithalamium for the Vasa. The first marriage of Sigismund III was honoured by Andrzej Zbylitowski and Joachim Bielski, the next – the lower-ranked authors: Jan Daniecki and Jan Jurkowski. The first wedding of Vladyslav IV was celebrated with two different epithalamia by the literary dilettante Mikołaj Szubski, and the second – by the royal valet Jerzy Władysław Judycki, and this is the only known work of this author.
That the next epithalamia were still being written, despite the lack of financial support from the praised rulers, resulted from the fact that, as long as the king’s courtier composed rhymes, writing a panegyric in honour of the king was, in a way, part of his duties. It was no coincidence
that half of the six mentioned authors (Zbylitowski, Bielski, Judycki) were royal courtiers.
These literary works, although not of the highest calibre (in this group, it is Judycki’s print that is the most artistically refined), represent diverse literary strategies and make an interesting testimony of the panegyrical culture of the time.
Stanisław Samuel Szemiot (ca. 1657–1684), a poet who wrote poems for his own use, willingly used ... more Stanisław Samuel Szemiot (ca. 1657–1684), a poet who wrote poems for his own use, willingly used the works of other authors. So far, we knew his borrowings from the poetry of Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584) or from the maxims of Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro (ca. 1620–1679). The chapter shows that Szemiot made similar use of epigrams and poems by the most popular Polish poet of the fi rst half of the 17th century, Hieronim Morsztyn (ca. 1581 – ca. 1622).
"Roczniki Humanistyczne", 2021
A DECIMA OF BAROQUE TRANSLATIONS OF SONGS ABOUT THE VANITIES OF THIS WORLD (INCLUDING “CUR MUNDUS... more A DECIMA OF BAROQUE TRANSLATIONS OF SONGS
ABOUT THE VANITIES OF THIS WORLD
(INCLUDING “CUR MUNDUS MILITAT SUB VANA GLORIA”):
A STUDY OF SOURCES
S u m m a r y
This article contains the edition of ten Polish translations of a hymn about the vanity of the world,
attributed to Jacopone da Todi (c. 1236-1306), and which were written in the years 1647-1747.
Their authors were Jan Libicki (d. 1670), Symeon of Polotsk (1629-1680), Wespazjan Kochowski
(1633-1700) and various anonymous poets.
Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce, 2020
From the History of the Poetic Reception of Engravings to Petrarch’s Triumphs: Mikołaj Rej, Macie... more From the History of the Poetic Reception of Engravings to Petrarch’s Triumphs: Mikołaj Rej, Maciej Stryjkowski, Stanisław Witkowski
The article deals with the poetic reception of six woodcuts made by Hans Brosamer for Petrarch’s Triumphs which were at the disposal of the printer Maciej Wirzbięta. The woodcuts, being a reduced and inverted copy of copperplate engravings by Georg Pencz (Fig. 1), were most probably made by Hans Brosamer. Wirzbięta proposed to Rej a series of engravings to write a cycle of epigrams about them. It was published fi ve years after the poet’s death, together with the engravings, in the second edition of The "Bestiary" ("Źwierzyniec") in 1574 (Fig. 3). The epigrams did not interpret the scenes presented in the woodcuts; Rej used their theme to illustrate his own moral advice.
In 1574, Wirzbięta also published Maciej Stryjkowski’s "Messanger of Virtue" ("Goniec Cnoty"), which begins with the poem "Fame" ("Sława") accompanied by the woodcut illustrating the triumph of Fame (Fig. 4). It is a successful interpretation of the engraving and its particular elements. The same woodcut was used by Stanisław Witkowski, who in his print "The Golden Liberty of the Crown" ("Złota wolność koronna") of 1609 added his own commentary in verse referring to the amnesty for members of the Zebrzydowski’s rebellion against the king.
None of the poets mentioned above was aware of the fact that initially the engravings their used illustrated Petrarch’s "Triumphs"; thus their epigrams could be hardly regarded as the evidence of Petrarchism. Authors’ familiarity with writing engraving poems bore fruit in the form of a diverse approach to the topic and its artistic depictions.
Pamiętnik Literacki, 2020
Recovered Text of “Maszkary mięsopustne i powszechne, przy tym Kłoda popielcowa z Parnasu” (“Shro... more Recovered Text of “Maszkary mięsopustne i powszechne, przy tym Kłoda popielcowa z Parnasu” (“Shrove Tuesday Masks and Common Masks, and also Ash Wednesday Wood Log from Parnassus”) by Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński
The paper contains a critical edition of "Maszkary mięsopustne i powszechne, przy tym Kłoda popielcowa z Parnasu" ("Shrove Tuesday Masks and Common Masks, and also Ash Wednesday Wood Log from Parnassus") by Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński, text of which has been considered irretrievably lost until now. In fact, unique print disappeared even before World War II, however, its faithful copy survived in Karol Badecki’s manuscript stored in the Jagiellonian Library (Ms 7777 III, pp. 310–318). The published text is accompanied by a literary historical and linguistic commentary.
Ruch Literacki, 2019
POETIC RECEPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH (LATE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY) Th... more POETIC RECEPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH (LATE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY)
The Triumphs (Triumphi) by Petrarch is a series of six poems honouring the allegorical figures of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity, who vanquish each other in turn. The Italian poem sequence was virtually unknown in Poland (although a Polish translation of The Triumph of Love appeared c. 1630, only few readers would have read it as it was circulated exclusively in a small number of hand-made copies). The illustrations, however, caught the eye of the printers and became immediately popular. They depicted each of the victorious figures riding
on triumphal chariot, followed by procession of captives. This article examines the Polish verses inspired by the illustrations rather than the text of the Trionfi i.e. written in the course of the late 17th and 18th century.
The author of the most remarkable poetic response to the pictorial representations of Petrarch's Triumphs was Samuil Gavrilovich Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (aka Symeon of Polotsk). As a student of the Academy of Wilno, he came across an emblem book with copperplate
engravings of the Triumphs designed by Maarten van Heemskerck in 1565. His Polish verses (composed c. 1650–1653) follow loosely the Latin epigrams (subscriptiones) by Hadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe). Symeon of Polotsk was the first Polish-language author whose verses reflected in extenso the pictorial representation of the Triumphs (before him verses inspired by Petrarch's allegories had been written by Mikołaj Rej, Maciej Stryjkowski and Stanisław Witkowski).
Wespazjan Kochowski's volume of miscellaneous pieces in verse published in 1674 includes an epigrammatic poem The Triumph of Love, inspired by Plate One of the Triumphs. However, Kochowski's description suggests that he must have seen an engraving showing Cupid's victims
under his feet. That iconographic variant appears, among other, in the woodcuts of Bernard Salomon (1547) and the copperplates designed by one of van Heemskerck's pupils (mid-16th century) or Matthäus Greuter (1596).
The following two poems were written about a century later. In 1779 Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin published in his second volume of Erotyki [Erotic poems] a song called The Triumph of Love. Its scenic arrangement, inspired by the illustrations of Petrarch's first Triumphus, is adapted to present twenty-one pairs of suitors. The description is stylized in conformity with the current Rococo manner and spiced up with touches of parody. A similar treatment of this subject can be
found in some 17th-century paintings, for example in the Triumph of Love by Frans Francken the Younger, or an identically titled picture by the Italian Baroque artist Mattia Preti. The other poem, On the picture of the 'Triumph of Death', can be found in Franciszek Karpiński's Zabawki
wierszem i przykłady obyczajne [Diversions in Verse and Moral Exemplars] published in 1780. It names eleven preeminent ancient conquerors and rulers, all cut down by Death personified by a scythe-wielding skeleton. Karpiński's description was no doubt inspired by a copperplate engraving produced by Silvestro Pomarede and designed about 1748–1750 by Gianantonio Buti after Bonifacio de' Pitati.
In each of the two prints most of the figures on the ground round the chariot are identified by name. It may also be noted that Karpiński rounds of his poem with two stanzas evoking the last plate in the cycle, The Triumph of Eternity.
Pamiętnik Literacki, 2020
POEMS ON DRAWINGS AS A DOMINANT OF SYMEON OF POŁOCK’S POLISH OUTPUT PART 2: FOURFOLDS The article... more POEMS ON DRAWINGS AS A DOMINANT OF SYMEON OF POŁOCK’S POLISH OUTPUT
PART 2: FOURFOLDS
The article is a continuation of the paper published in “Literary Memoir” 2017, issue 3, devoted to the graphic sources of Polish epigrammatic cycles by Samuił Gawryłowicz Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (1629–1680), later known under the assumed monastic name of Symeon of Połock. Studying between the years 1650–1653 at the Vilnius Academy, the young poet composed epigrammatic cycles to almost 30 series of Netherlandic drawings. The present article discusses the poet’s following cycles: Cztery świata wieki (Four Centuries of the World), an adaptation of Tobias Verhaecht’s drawing series Quatuor
mundi aetates from before the year 1599, Cztery części roku pogody (Four Parts of the Year’s Weather), which is an adaptation of a series of Maarten van Heemskerck’s 1563 drawings entitled Quatuor anni tempestates, Cztery części dnia (Four Parts of a Day), being an adaptation of Verhaecht’s drawing series Quatuor temporis partes et intervalla, Cztery żywioły i skutki onych (The Four Elements and Their Effects) adapting Maarten de Vos’ Quatuor elementa, eorumque effectus from circa the year 1582, Cztery przemagające kompleksyje (Four Predominating Complexities) which is an adaptation of Heemskerck’s 1566 series of drawings Quatuor praedominantes complexiones, and the cycle Cztery rzeczy namocniejsze (Four Strongest Things) referring to a story from an apocryphal account of 3 Ezdras (3, 1–4, 42), and being an adaptation of Gerard Groenning’s series of drawings from circa the year 1574.
Pamiętnik Literacki, 2017
Samuił Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (1629–1680), more commonly known as Symeon of Połock, was in the y... more Samuił Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (1629–1680), more commonly known as Symeon of Połock, was in the years 1643–1650 a student of The Kyiv-Mohyla College and subsequently from 1650 to 1653 of The Vilnius Academy. Both schools required that their students composed poems in Polish, and exercises in this matter made a starting point for Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz’s poetic carrier.
In his later poetry in Old Church Slavonic, epigrams written for drawings or paintings played an important role. The author of the present study proves that also 28 juvenile epigram cycles are Polonized from Latin subscriptions to popular series of Dutch artists’ drawings. Apart from indicating and discussing the drawings being the basis for the poet’s adaptation, the article offers the first critical edition of the analysed texts since the available publications of Symeon of Połock’s Polish output are far from being correct.
The first part of the study presents the graphic sources of poetic cycles "Trudno wszytkim wygodzić" (adaptation of drawing series "Iudicii popularis vanitas et stoliditas" <"Vanity and Stupidity of Common People’s Judging"> by Ambrosius Francken the Elder from before the year 1607), "Trojakie prawo" (adaptation of drawing series "Triplex lex" <"Triple Law"> by Maarten de Vos from before 1580), "Trzy stany ich obowiązki" (adaptation of Maarten van Heemskerck’s drawing cycle, circa 1565, "Triplex hominum status et uniuscuiusque munia ac partes" <"Three Social Classes, Their Functions and Duties">), and "Zaniedbanie duszy dla zbytniego o ciele starania" – adaptation of an anonymous drawing cycle "Animae incuria ob nimiam corporis curam" <"Rapt Attention Given to Body Leads to Soul Negligence">.
Terminus, 2019
The Seweryn Udziela Etnographic Musem in Cracow holds an impressive collection of old engravings,... more The Seweryn Udziela Etnographic Musem in Cracow holds an impressive collection of old engravings, among which there are also copperplates by Cornelis Galle. He used selected prints from Amorum emblemata (1608) and Amoris divini emblemata (1615) by Otton van Veen and Pia desideria (1624) by Herman Hugo to create his own emblematic cycle on metaphysical relations between the Soul and Amor Divinus. The drawings from the works of Veen and Hugo were very popular in the seventeenth * Polish version: R. Grześkowiak, J. Niedźwiedź, "Nieznane polskie subskryp-cje do emblematów religijnych Ottona van Veen i Hermana Hugona. Przyczynek do funkcjonowania zachodniej grafiki religijnej w kulturze staropolskiej", Terminus 14/25 (2012), pp. 47-68. Accepted, unedited articles published online and citable. The final edited and typeset version of record will appear in future.
Terminus, 2019
Old Cracow Editions of the First Book of Polish Proverbs 3. Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński as Edito... more Old Cracow Editions of the First Book of Polish Proverbs
3. Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński as Editor of the 1620 Edition of Salomon Rysiński’s Polish Proverbs (Przypowieści polskie)
This paper is the third part of a triptych that presents the publishing history of three Cracow reissues of 1619, 1620 and 1634 of a collection of Polish proverbs Proverbiorum
Polonicorum […] centuriae decem et octo prepared by Salomon Rysiński. This section discusses the editorial work of Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński on the new Cracow edition of Rysiński’s 1620 collection, which, according to the wording of its title, was “corrected in many places”.
First of all, Jagodyński softened the anti-Catholic implications of some of the proverbs noted by Rysiński, who was a Calvinist. Secondly, he rewrote some of the
proverbs, replacing the original phrasings with versions that he was more familiar with. Thirdly, he added twenty new proverbs. In comparison with Jagodyński’s paremiographic erudition, this number is relatively small (in his epigrams one can find many more proverbs unknown to Rysiński), as he did not think it part of his duties as the editor of the collection. Jagodyński introduced supplementary information mostly in the critical apparatus. He added a total of sixty-eight Polish proverbs to the Latin equivalents taken from the collection of Adagia by Erasmus Roterodamus, thus completing the first erudite collection of Polish proverbs.
"Pamiętnik Literacki", 2024
WHEN WERE ZBIGNIEW MORSZTYN’S EMBLEMS COMPOSED? NEW DETERMINATIONS ABOUT THE COLLECTION’S DATING ... more WHEN WERE ZBIGNIEW MORSZTYN’S EMBLEMS COMPOSED? NEW DETERMINATIONS ABOUT THE COLLECTION’S DATING
In 1966, Janusz Pelc, Zbigniew Morsztyn’s monographer, roughly dated the composition of a cycle of emblems. As he claims, Morsztyn completed it between 1675–1680 or 1676–1680, started presumably in the 1660s, and also added corrections probably after 1680. This dating is essentially valid until now. Grześkowiak in his paper proves that the cycle was concluded after May 21st, 1674 (date of Jan III Sobieski’s coronation is mentioned in dedication), and before July 15th, 1675, when Kazimierz Krzysztof Kłokocki, a would-be issuer, who administered the Słuck publishing house, confirmed in a letter that he received the manuscript final draft. Grześkowiak questions the two hypotheses that had impact on the erstwhile dating: Pelc’s thesis suggesting that two different copies of complete collections of emblems represent its two disparate auctorial editions, and Paulina Buchwald-Pelcowa and Janusz Pelc’s assumption that Morsztyn composed 50 three-verse subscriptions written on a 1626 copy of Amoris Divini et humani effectus varii treasured in Uppsala University Library.
This article is devoted to a collection of poetic letters written by Hieronim Morsztyn in Padua i... more This article is devoted to a collection of poetic letters written by Hieronim Morsztyn in Padua in late 1617 and early 1618. Their collegial tone and lack of self-censorship made them a unique source of the everyday life of Padua's Polish community. Mentions of numerous libations, love affairs with virgos and married women, the use of courtesans and, finally, the pregnancy of one of them, all add up to a colourful picture of the social life of students and travellers visiting Padua and nearby Venice. Even the two letters concerning attendance at a public autopsy, which was carried out at the Pallazo del Bo by anatomy professor Adriaan van den Spieghel between 25 January and 19 February 1618, are focusing on an account of the dissection of male and female genitalia.
The Trojan horse of panegyrists – a study of the Old Polish popularity of a certain topos This ar... more The Trojan horse of panegyrists – a study
of the Old Polish popularity of a certain topos
This article is a first comprehensive monographic study of the topical comparison
to the Trojan horse, discussing its origins and its most important panegyric uses in
Old Polish orations and poetry. Today, when the phraseologism ‘Trojan horse’, associated
with treachery, false gift, or internal enemy, is unambiguously pejorative,
the positive connotations of 16th- and 17th-century texts may seem incomprehensible.
Meanwhile, old authors commonly imitated Cicero’s formula (De oratore II 22,94),
who likened the school of the famous speaker Isocrates to the Trojan horse, from
whence many illustrious Greeks emerged. The numerous examples collected in the
article prove that this comparison was commonly used in Polish literature until the
end of the 18th century in three main contexts, i.e., to praise a humanist and teacher
(e.g., professor of the Krakow Academy Szymon Kociołek, the bishop of Kraków
Samuel Maciejowski), to praise a university (e.g., the Kraków Academy) or school
(e.g., Jesuit colleges), and to praise an illustrious family (originally royal, princely and
magnate families, with time the comparison began to be used in praise of minor noble
families). The article also discusses the obscene reinterpretation of this topos.
The collection of epigrams "Źwierzyniec" [Bestiary] by Mikołaj Rej consists of a number of epigra... more The collection of epigrams "Źwierzyniec" [Bestiary] by Mikołaj Rej consists of a number of epigrams three of which are devoted to the figures of St. Christopher (IV 1) and St. George (IV 2 and II 121). For many years, they have been regarded as literary representations of emblematic works and paintings. In fact, the immediate inspiration for the epigrams in question was Martin Luther's interpretation put forward in the late 1520s and early 1530s and later popularised by his adherents in their German and Latin works.
Światy (nie)równoległe. Literatura wobec astronomii, 2022
Zygmunt II August i kultura jego czasów. W pięćsetlecie urodzin ostatniego Jagiellona na polsko-litewskim tronie, ed. R. Rusnak, 2022
Exemplum from the Song by Mikołaj Rej "The Likeness of a Christian Man’s Life" [Podobieństwo życi... more Exemplum from the Song by Mikołaj Rej "The Likeness of a Christian Man’s Life" [Podobieństwo życia chrześcijańskiego człowieka] alias "The Exhortation Addressed to This Christian Knight" [Ku temuż to krześcijańskiemu rycerzowi napominanie]. From Parable Text to Allegorical Engraving
Abstract
The full text of the song by Mikołaj Rej with the incipit: “What do you want to do, my dear man” [“Cóż chcesz czynić, mój miły człowiecze”] had as many as nine editions in the years 1556–1600, all of which are briefl y discussed here. The article contains a critical edition of the song (the three existing contemporary editions do not meet the criteria for a critical edition) and a discussion, but it focuses primarily on the exemplum presented in the initial part of the poem. This exemplum tells the story of a young man who was chased by a lion to the edge of a precipice and saved himself from the fall by grabbing a branch of a tree growing out of the rock wall. Ignoring the lion above him, the dragon at the bottom of the precipice, and the mice that were gnawing on the branch, the young man focused his attention on apples growing on the branch. The parable is meant to illustrate the stupidity
of people who are hunted by death (the lion), lurked by the devil (the dragon), whose time passes quickly (the white and black mice symbolising day and night represent the passage of time), and who, oblivious to the dangers, focus on worldly goods.
The article points the Old Indian source of this parable, discusses the way it reached Europe, and mentions the editors Rej may have used. It also shows the reception of the parable from Rej’s song in the sixteenth century, both textual (Benedykt Herbest, 1566) and visual (Stanisław Kołakowski, 1584).
"Pamiętnik Literacki", 2022
ON THE PESTILENTIAL CONTEXT AND TWO ANCIENT READERS OF A 16TH C. EDITION OF POLIKARP’S DIALOGUE ... more ON THE PESTILENTIAL CONTEXT AND TWO ANCIENT READERS
OF A 16TH C. EDITION OF POLIKARP’S DIALOGUE
The paper reveals that the immediate cause of including "Dialog mistrza Polikarpa ze Śmiercią" ("Master Polikarp’s Dialogue with Death") in 1542 in the print "Śmierci z mistrzem dwojakie gadania" ("Death’s Two Dialogues with the Master") was a plague epidemic that then spread over the Greater Poland region and reached Cracow the following year. The epidemic was the most severe of all that attacked Poland in the 15th and 16th c. The Cracow printers issued at that time numerous mortuary prints and within this framework they also reminded of the mediaeval dialogue. The author of the paper also pays attention to two readers of this volume: Mikołaj Rej, who, influenced by it, composed his "Kupiec" ("Merchant", 1549), and Paweł Simplicjan, that in his "Manele duchowne" ("Spiritual Matters", 1601) in extenso quoted a piece of a skull from "Śmierci z mistrzem dwojakie gadania". Simplicjan’s publication is here linked with a 1542 edition which also incorporates the same image of Death.
"Terminus", 2022
“Złego sługę malarze tak figurowali” (“A bad servant was so depicted”): Sources of the Images of ... more “Złego sługę malarze tak figurowali” (“A bad servant was so depicted”): Sources of the Images of a Good and Bad Servant and of a Good and Bad Wife in Chapter 4 of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’)
The chapter of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’), entitled Jako starych wieków przypadki świeckie ludzie sobie malowali (‘As People Painted Secular Shapes from Old Times’), is a collection of epigrams accompanied by visual illustrations of various human features and vices. As proved in 1893 by Ignacy Chrzanowski, some of the pieces were inspired by Andrea Alciato’s emblems, hence the search for Rej’s sources
focused on emblem literature. However, despite the evidence that Rej’s epigrams were intended as comments to illustrations, they still may be rooted in literary texts.
This article deals with the sources of four epigrams, namely, the one depicting a bad servant, a good servant, a good wife and a bad wife. The epigram "Sługa dobry" (IV 31, ‘The Good Servant’) may have been modeled on the popular treaty "Οίκετης sive De officio famulorum", written in 1535 by Gilbert Cousin, who described an image of a good servant, subsequently painted in French nobles’ chambers. It presented a human silhouette with a pig’s face, donkey’s ears and deer’s legs, which captured the idea of the servant being easy to feed, eager to listen and fast to follow the master’s orders. This image was widely popularized in 16th-century drawings, however none of them is known to have been familiar to Rej before 1562 and used by him as a pattern for his epigram.
Since a pig’s snout is associated with gluttony in Rej’s other texts, in the epigram "Sługa dobry" it is replaced by a bull’s head. The image of the snout is exploited in "Zły sługa" (IV 30, ‘The Bad Servant’). Rej equipped the bad servant with a wolf ’s ears – he will pretend to misunderstand orders for his own benefit, a bear’s paws – he steals, and a dog’s tail – he flatters his master.
The two epigrams presenting the images of a good wife and a bad wife, were inspired by verses that were echoed in Rej’s other works, for instance in "Postylla" (1557, ‘Postil’) and "Żywot człowieka poczciwego" (1568, ‘Life of a Virtuous Man’). The epigram "Żona poczciwa" (IV 32, ‘The Virtuous Wife’) alludes to Ps. 128(127):3, whereas "Żona wszeteczna" (IV 33, ‘The Profligate Wife’) to Prov. 11:22.
Wazowie a literatura Przekroje i zbliżenia, ed. R. Krzywy. P. Tyszka, Warszawa , 2021
Epithalamia of the Vasas ‘Penned in the Native Tongue' Three Polish kings from the Vasa dynasty,... more Epithalamia of the Vasas ‘Penned in the Native Tongue'
Three Polish kings from the Vasa dynasty, Sigismund III, Vladyslav IV, and John II Casimir, were married five times. These ceremonies were commemorated by over sixty prints in Latin and only seven epithalamic collections in Polish. The responsibility for such a small number of the latter fell on the kings themselves, as they were little interested in the praises written by panegyrists in a language other than Latin understood throughout the whole of Europe. For the authors of the Polish-language epithalamia, the Vasas turned out to be quite unfavourable patrons.
The consequences of this fact are not limited to a small number of texts, clearly decreasing with successive marriages: the two wedding ceremonies of Sigismund III, in 1592 and 1605, were praised by two poets; the wedding of Vladyslav IV in 1637 was also honoured in two prints, but by one author; the next marriage of this king, held in 1646, was praised in only one Polish volume, and John II Casimir’s wedding, which took place two years later, was not honoured with any Polish poetry collection, as far as we know. With the lapse of time, it was increasingly inferior poets that decided to write an epithalamium for the Vasa. The first marriage of Sigismund III was honoured by Andrzej Zbylitowski and Joachim Bielski, the next – the lower-ranked authors: Jan Daniecki and Jan Jurkowski. The first wedding of Vladyslav IV was celebrated with two different epithalamia by the literary dilettante Mikołaj Szubski, and the second – by the royal valet Jerzy Władysław Judycki, and this is the only known work of this author.
That the next epithalamia were still being written, despite the lack of financial support from the praised rulers, resulted from the fact that, as long as the king’s courtier composed rhymes, writing a panegyric in honour of the king was, in a way, part of his duties. It was no coincidence
that half of the six mentioned authors (Zbylitowski, Bielski, Judycki) were royal courtiers.
These literary works, although not of the highest calibre (in this group, it is Judycki’s print that is the most artistically refined), represent diverse literary strategies and make an interesting testimony of the panegyrical culture of the time.
Stanisław Samuel Szemiot (ca. 1657–1684), a poet who wrote poems for his own use, willingly used ... more Stanisław Samuel Szemiot (ca. 1657–1684), a poet who wrote poems for his own use, willingly used the works of other authors. So far, we knew his borrowings from the poetry of Jan Kochanowski (1530–1584) or from the maxims of Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro (ca. 1620–1679). The chapter shows that Szemiot made similar use of epigrams and poems by the most popular Polish poet of the fi rst half of the 17th century, Hieronim Morsztyn (ca. 1581 – ca. 1622).
"Roczniki Humanistyczne", 2021
A DECIMA OF BAROQUE TRANSLATIONS OF SONGS ABOUT THE VANITIES OF THIS WORLD (INCLUDING “CUR MUNDUS... more A DECIMA OF BAROQUE TRANSLATIONS OF SONGS
ABOUT THE VANITIES OF THIS WORLD
(INCLUDING “CUR MUNDUS MILITAT SUB VANA GLORIA”):
A STUDY OF SOURCES
S u m m a r y
This article contains the edition of ten Polish translations of a hymn about the vanity of the world,
attributed to Jacopone da Todi (c. 1236-1306), and which were written in the years 1647-1747.
Their authors were Jan Libicki (d. 1670), Symeon of Polotsk (1629-1680), Wespazjan Kochowski
(1633-1700) and various anonymous poets.
Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce, 2020
From the History of the Poetic Reception of Engravings to Petrarch’s Triumphs: Mikołaj Rej, Macie... more From the History of the Poetic Reception of Engravings to Petrarch’s Triumphs: Mikołaj Rej, Maciej Stryjkowski, Stanisław Witkowski
The article deals with the poetic reception of six woodcuts made by Hans Brosamer for Petrarch’s Triumphs which were at the disposal of the printer Maciej Wirzbięta. The woodcuts, being a reduced and inverted copy of copperplate engravings by Georg Pencz (Fig. 1), were most probably made by Hans Brosamer. Wirzbięta proposed to Rej a series of engravings to write a cycle of epigrams about them. It was published fi ve years after the poet’s death, together with the engravings, in the second edition of The "Bestiary" ("Źwierzyniec") in 1574 (Fig. 3). The epigrams did not interpret the scenes presented in the woodcuts; Rej used their theme to illustrate his own moral advice.
In 1574, Wirzbięta also published Maciej Stryjkowski’s "Messanger of Virtue" ("Goniec Cnoty"), which begins with the poem "Fame" ("Sława") accompanied by the woodcut illustrating the triumph of Fame (Fig. 4). It is a successful interpretation of the engraving and its particular elements. The same woodcut was used by Stanisław Witkowski, who in his print "The Golden Liberty of the Crown" ("Złota wolność koronna") of 1609 added his own commentary in verse referring to the amnesty for members of the Zebrzydowski’s rebellion against the king.
None of the poets mentioned above was aware of the fact that initially the engravings their used illustrated Petrarch’s "Triumphs"; thus their epigrams could be hardly regarded as the evidence of Petrarchism. Authors’ familiarity with writing engraving poems bore fruit in the form of a diverse approach to the topic and its artistic depictions.
Pamiętnik Literacki, 2020
Recovered Text of “Maszkary mięsopustne i powszechne, przy tym Kłoda popielcowa z Parnasu” (“Shro... more Recovered Text of “Maszkary mięsopustne i powszechne, przy tym Kłoda popielcowa z Parnasu” (“Shrove Tuesday Masks and Common Masks, and also Ash Wednesday Wood Log from Parnassus”) by Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński
The paper contains a critical edition of "Maszkary mięsopustne i powszechne, przy tym Kłoda popielcowa z Parnasu" ("Shrove Tuesday Masks and Common Masks, and also Ash Wednesday Wood Log from Parnassus") by Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński, text of which has been considered irretrievably lost until now. In fact, unique print disappeared even before World War II, however, its faithful copy survived in Karol Badecki’s manuscript stored in the Jagiellonian Library (Ms 7777 III, pp. 310–318). The published text is accompanied by a literary historical and linguistic commentary.
Ruch Literacki, 2019
POETIC RECEPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH (LATE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY) Th... more POETIC RECEPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE TRIUMPHS OF PETRARCH (LATE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY)
The Triumphs (Triumphi) by Petrarch is a series of six poems honouring the allegorical figures of Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time and Eternity, who vanquish each other in turn. The Italian poem sequence was virtually unknown in Poland (although a Polish translation of The Triumph of Love appeared c. 1630, only few readers would have read it as it was circulated exclusively in a small number of hand-made copies). The illustrations, however, caught the eye of the printers and became immediately popular. They depicted each of the victorious figures riding
on triumphal chariot, followed by procession of captives. This article examines the Polish verses inspired by the illustrations rather than the text of the Trionfi i.e. written in the course of the late 17th and 18th century.
The author of the most remarkable poetic response to the pictorial representations of Petrarch's Triumphs was Samuil Gavrilovich Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (aka Symeon of Polotsk). As a student of the Academy of Wilno, he came across an emblem book with copperplate
engravings of the Triumphs designed by Maarten van Heemskerck in 1565. His Polish verses (composed c. 1650–1653) follow loosely the Latin epigrams (subscriptiones) by Hadrianus Junius (Adriaen de Jonghe). Symeon of Polotsk was the first Polish-language author whose verses reflected in extenso the pictorial representation of the Triumphs (before him verses inspired by Petrarch's allegories had been written by Mikołaj Rej, Maciej Stryjkowski and Stanisław Witkowski).
Wespazjan Kochowski's volume of miscellaneous pieces in verse published in 1674 includes an epigrammatic poem The Triumph of Love, inspired by Plate One of the Triumphs. However, Kochowski's description suggests that he must have seen an engraving showing Cupid's victims
under his feet. That iconographic variant appears, among other, in the woodcuts of Bernard Salomon (1547) and the copperplates designed by one of van Heemskerck's pupils (mid-16th century) or Matthäus Greuter (1596).
The following two poems were written about a century later. In 1779 Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin published in his second volume of Erotyki [Erotic poems] a song called The Triumph of Love. Its scenic arrangement, inspired by the illustrations of Petrarch's first Triumphus, is adapted to present twenty-one pairs of suitors. The description is stylized in conformity with the current Rococo manner and spiced up with touches of parody. A similar treatment of this subject can be
found in some 17th-century paintings, for example in the Triumph of Love by Frans Francken the Younger, or an identically titled picture by the Italian Baroque artist Mattia Preti. The other poem, On the picture of the 'Triumph of Death', can be found in Franciszek Karpiński's Zabawki
wierszem i przykłady obyczajne [Diversions in Verse and Moral Exemplars] published in 1780. It names eleven preeminent ancient conquerors and rulers, all cut down by Death personified by a scythe-wielding skeleton. Karpiński's description was no doubt inspired by a copperplate engraving produced by Silvestro Pomarede and designed about 1748–1750 by Gianantonio Buti after Bonifacio de' Pitati.
In each of the two prints most of the figures on the ground round the chariot are identified by name. It may also be noted that Karpiński rounds of his poem with two stanzas evoking the last plate in the cycle, The Triumph of Eternity.
Pamiętnik Literacki, 2020
POEMS ON DRAWINGS AS A DOMINANT OF SYMEON OF POŁOCK’S POLISH OUTPUT PART 2: FOURFOLDS The article... more POEMS ON DRAWINGS AS A DOMINANT OF SYMEON OF POŁOCK’S POLISH OUTPUT
PART 2: FOURFOLDS
The article is a continuation of the paper published in “Literary Memoir” 2017, issue 3, devoted to the graphic sources of Polish epigrammatic cycles by Samuił Gawryłowicz Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (1629–1680), later known under the assumed monastic name of Symeon of Połock. Studying between the years 1650–1653 at the Vilnius Academy, the young poet composed epigrammatic cycles to almost 30 series of Netherlandic drawings. The present article discusses the poet’s following cycles: Cztery świata wieki (Four Centuries of the World), an adaptation of Tobias Verhaecht’s drawing series Quatuor
mundi aetates from before the year 1599, Cztery części roku pogody (Four Parts of the Year’s Weather), which is an adaptation of a series of Maarten van Heemskerck’s 1563 drawings entitled Quatuor anni tempestates, Cztery części dnia (Four Parts of a Day), being an adaptation of Verhaecht’s drawing series Quatuor temporis partes et intervalla, Cztery żywioły i skutki onych (The Four Elements and Their Effects) adapting Maarten de Vos’ Quatuor elementa, eorumque effectus from circa the year 1582, Cztery przemagające kompleksyje (Four Predominating Complexities) which is an adaptation of Heemskerck’s 1566 series of drawings Quatuor praedominantes complexiones, and the cycle Cztery rzeczy namocniejsze (Four Strongest Things) referring to a story from an apocryphal account of 3 Ezdras (3, 1–4, 42), and being an adaptation of Gerard Groenning’s series of drawings from circa the year 1574.
Pamiętnik Literacki, 2017
Samuił Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (1629–1680), more commonly known as Symeon of Połock, was in the y... more Samuił Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz (1629–1680), more commonly known as Symeon of Połock, was in the years 1643–1650 a student of The Kyiv-Mohyla College and subsequently from 1650 to 1653 of The Vilnius Academy. Both schools required that their students composed poems in Polish, and exercises in this matter made a starting point for Piotrowski-Sitnianowicz’s poetic carrier.
In his later poetry in Old Church Slavonic, epigrams written for drawings or paintings played an important role. The author of the present study proves that also 28 juvenile epigram cycles are Polonized from Latin subscriptions to popular series of Dutch artists’ drawings. Apart from indicating and discussing the drawings being the basis for the poet’s adaptation, the article offers the first critical edition of the analysed texts since the available publications of Symeon of Połock’s Polish output are far from being correct.
The first part of the study presents the graphic sources of poetic cycles "Trudno wszytkim wygodzić" (adaptation of drawing series "Iudicii popularis vanitas et stoliditas" <"Vanity and Stupidity of Common People’s Judging"> by Ambrosius Francken the Elder from before the year 1607), "Trojakie prawo" (adaptation of drawing series "Triplex lex" <"Triple Law"> by Maarten de Vos from before 1580), "Trzy stany ich obowiązki" (adaptation of Maarten van Heemskerck’s drawing cycle, circa 1565, "Triplex hominum status et uniuscuiusque munia ac partes" <"Three Social Classes, Their Functions and Duties">), and "Zaniedbanie duszy dla zbytniego o ciele starania" – adaptation of an anonymous drawing cycle "Animae incuria ob nimiam corporis curam" <"Rapt Attention Given to Body Leads to Soul Negligence">.
Terminus, 2019
The Seweryn Udziela Etnographic Musem in Cracow holds an impressive collection of old engravings,... more The Seweryn Udziela Etnographic Musem in Cracow holds an impressive collection of old engravings, among which there are also copperplates by Cornelis Galle. He used selected prints from Amorum emblemata (1608) and Amoris divini emblemata (1615) by Otton van Veen and Pia desideria (1624) by Herman Hugo to create his own emblematic cycle on metaphysical relations between the Soul and Amor Divinus. The drawings from the works of Veen and Hugo were very popular in the seventeenth * Polish version: R. Grześkowiak, J. Niedźwiedź, "Nieznane polskie subskryp-cje do emblematów religijnych Ottona van Veen i Hermana Hugona. Przyczynek do funkcjonowania zachodniej grafiki religijnej w kulturze staropolskiej", Terminus 14/25 (2012), pp. 47-68. Accepted, unedited articles published online and citable. The final edited and typeset version of record will appear in future.
Terminus, 2019
Old Cracow Editions of the First Book of Polish Proverbs 3. Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński as Edito... more Old Cracow Editions of the First Book of Polish Proverbs
3. Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński as Editor of the 1620 Edition of Salomon Rysiński’s Polish Proverbs (Przypowieści polskie)
This paper is the third part of a triptych that presents the publishing history of three Cracow reissues of 1619, 1620 and 1634 of a collection of Polish proverbs Proverbiorum
Polonicorum […] centuriae decem et octo prepared by Salomon Rysiński. This section discusses the editorial work of Stanisław Serafin Jagodyński on the new Cracow edition of Rysiński’s 1620 collection, which, according to the wording of its title, was “corrected in many places”.
First of all, Jagodyński softened the anti-Catholic implications of some of the proverbs noted by Rysiński, who was a Calvinist. Secondly, he rewrote some of the
proverbs, replacing the original phrasings with versions that he was more familiar with. Thirdly, he added twenty new proverbs. In comparison with Jagodyński’s paremiographic erudition, this number is relatively small (in his epigrams one can find many more proverbs unknown to Rysiński), as he did not think it part of his duties as the editor of the collection. Jagodyński introduced supplementary information mostly in the critical apparatus. He added a total of sixty-eight Polish proverbs to the Latin equivalents taken from the collection of Adagia by Erasmus Roterodamus, thus completing the first erudite collection of Polish proverbs.
This is the first monographic study of the reception of Herman Hugo's emblematic book "Pia deside... more This is the first monographic study of the reception of Herman Hugo's emblematic book "Pia desideria" (1624) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It discusses ten different translations and adaptations, showing how the engravings, elegies and exegetical extracts of the original volume were used by Polish-speaking authors (a little space is also devoted to the painting reception of the engravings). The author examines too the reasons for the phenomenon of the volume's popularity, proving that it was determined by the interest of women who did not know Latin, who constituted the most important target group for these numerous and varied Polish adaptations.
Wydawnictwo Neriton, 2020
Najbardziej znaną książką emblematyczną o tematyce religijnej był traktat Hermana Hugona (1588-16... more Najbardziej znaną książką emblematyczną o tematyce religijnej był traktat Hermana Hugona (1588-1629) Pia desideria. Liczne wznowienia, tłumaczenia na wersje wernakularne, kompilacje i adaptacje tego utworu świadczą o jego popularności. Dotąd były znane przekłady na język polski i adaptacje łacińskich elegii oraz poetyckich komentarzy do rycin całego zbioru. Tymczasem nowo odkryte teksty adaptacji tych ekscerptów, pochodzące ze środowiska karmelitanek bosych, stanowią brakujące ogniwo polskiej recepcji tego utworu. W tomie opublikowano krytyczną edycję tych karmelitańskich przekazów. Odnalezione rękopiśmienne adaptacje znacząco uzupełnią wiedzę o formacji i lekturze duchowej w klasztorach karmelitanek bosych oraz o kulturze literackiej polskiego baroku i jej związkach z kulturą europejską. Udostępniono ponadto krytyczną edycję tych rękopisów karmelitańskich, przechowywanych w Krakowie i Lwowie, a także ustalono źródła cytatów egzegetycznych w Pia desideria, co stanowi pierwsze naukowe opracowanie tego utworu.
